Questions tagged [hobbyist]
The hobbyist tag has no usage guidance.
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Confusion why MAX98357 won't get full power when shared with ESP32
I have what I thought was an easy circuit, but it is not behaving as I expected. I have an ESP32 devkit1 and a MAX98357 breakout board that I am trying to run together. The MAX98357 breakout is ...
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1
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Slow Start on 12V DC Motor
I am designing a small mechanical device that makes use of a 12VDC motor. I am trying to stick with components that can be easily sourced from Amazon or other hobby electronics stores so that others ...
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2
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161
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Create TTL pulse with button press
Is there any way to get a 5V TTL signal (pulse of whatever duration, could even be a boxcar) from a button press with a very simple circuit or with some consumer device?
I need this to do some ...
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I need help to assess what battery pack is needed for a project with both 3V and 5V power needs
I'm building an MP3 player into a photo frame for an art project.
The frame is being mounted with three LEDs. When power is turned on, it will play an mp3 track too.
I'm waiting for the kit to arrive ...
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What's the best solution for creating a magnetic field around a small cylinder?
I'm a beginning electronics hobbyist so forgive the naive question.
I'd like to have a small cylinder (1cm radius, 3-4cm length) where I could control a magnetic field around the cylinder with voltage....
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Want to add a timer circuit to shut down battery powered toy
Would like to have:
Operates down to 3V,
Open drain/collector output,
Programmable with resistor/capacitor/other,
Integrated clock divider would be nice.
Was thinking of using a 555 chip to shut off ...
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2
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64
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Determining the optimum resistance in an LED light?
I'm reassembling an old rechargable torch which originally used a 4.2V lead acid battery. I changed it to a 3.7 li-ion battery and it's working just fine.
The lighting plate contains 9 LEDs (connected ...
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Why would a laptop power off due to Raspberry Pico + servo?
For learning purposes I used Raspberry Pico to control a servo motor (using PWM.)
I used an SG-5010 servo.
I powered the servo from the Raspberry Pico (which was itself USB-attached to my laptop), GND(...
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218
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Sziklai pair style amplifier design
I am a beginner. I have built this schematic in LTspice. It's a five transistor amplifier with 2 voltage gain stages, 1 input stage, 1 output stage and 1 pair of Sziklai pair transistors. On testing ...
user267836
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What does the "A331" mean on a 2N2222 transistor?
I'm a hobbyist and as such I have an assorted collection of transistors. Most of them, if not all, have a cabalistic string after their names. Case in point is the 2N2222, which displays a "A331&...
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Can I use a 700V transistor with a 12V collector and base?
Please forgive any misunderstandings, as I am not an expert on electrical components.
I am trying to build the following circuit:
I need to be able to run 1.5A through the transistor. Can I use a ...
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120
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Doing digital IoT and some analog circuits without an oscilloscope
In my free time, I do electronic stuff as a hobby (at least for now.) I don't own an oscilloscope or a fancy multimeter due to the terrible financial state of my country. I am in Iran.
In some ...
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Advice on first PCB - doppler sonar project
I have designed a schematic for a PCB for a doppler sonar project. The plan is to use a RPi 3B+ for some basic signal processing, an arduino to produce a 40 kHz wave via PWM which is filtered to ...
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Using an SN74HC595 as a single-wire state machine
I have an SN74HC595 shift register, and I want to use it to replace a microcontroller to save space and cost, since a microcontroller isn't really needed in my application.
The application is a system ...
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Looking for 5mm discrete multi color LED [closed]
I want to make an electronic version of the Master Mind game as a hobby project. The challenge at the moment is to find right type of LEDs for the job. Below you ...
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Do 1MHz 3.3V through-hole oscillators exist?
I'm beginning my first MCU project and I'm having trouble finding a suitable oscillator. I want to run an ATtiny261 at very low power. It will be lighting up different combinations of LEDs based on ...
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Measure if bottle level is empty
Consider an upside bottle with liquid (water) oozing out from pinhole on head. I need to detect if water falls below a certain level.
I searched and saw there are multiple sensors already available ...
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Can I get help troubleshooting a simple hobby electronics circuit? Multimeter not measuring current drawn
I am following the experiment in the popular electronics book - "Make: Electronics third edition". However, when replicating one of the experiments mentioned in the book (specifically ...
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TXS0108E as bus isolator?
I've been looking for a Bi-directional IO isolator to "unplug" a microcontroller during startup, and found the TXS0108E.
My question would be: can you tie VCCA = VCCB = 3.3v? according to ...
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Improve conceptual intervalometer for rotating potted plants
I'm trying to avoid having my plants tilting or otherwise looking bad after only getting sunlight from one direction. To solve it, I want to make the pots rotate.
I'm trying to design a cheap, stand ...
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Average lifespan of typical project box LEDs widely available for purchase [closed]
I tried searching for this but I just get light fixture LED information. I'm trying to determine the expected lifespan of a typical small LED like you'll find in electronics kits or hobbyist stores. I ...
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763
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555 and loudspeaker - Beginner question
First of a disclaimer - I'm a hobbyist and quite the beginner at that, so bear with me.
What I'm trying to build is a metronome with an astable 555 oscillator that is driving an 8 Ohm loudspeaker. I ...
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Flywheel/Dynamo behavior under variable load
I have a special effects project in mind where I simulate a bellows and coal fire without, you know, actual fire.
My vision thusfar involves rigging a flywheel to a short-stroke lever (the upper arm ...
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3
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How to delay astable 555 timer IC by ~1 min
My problem:
I've reproduced the 555 timer circuit from here: https://www.gadgetronicx.com/door-open-alarm-ic-555/.
Because of the specifics of my application I'd like the signal at the speaker to be ...
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How do you store ICs used in hobby electronics?
I've recently started working on a project and I need to find a way to store some ICs that I'm using. I have around five different ICs and someone said I could just put them all together in a small ...
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How can I use a 5200 mAh Li-Po battery to power multiple things?
I'm building an autonomous car and have a 7.4V 5200mAh 2S Li-Po battery that needs to power the following components:
Brushless DC Motor (Through ESC)
Raspberry Pi 4
Servo motor
Arduino Uno
Another ...
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855
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Is this gate driver circuit sufficient to drive a parallel FET spot welder?
I am building a spot welder for attaching nickel strips to Li-Ion cells to make custom battery packs. There are plenty on the market but I wanted to use up some components and learn something.
The ...
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3
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Can a short circuit kill the USB port of a PC?
I use a cut USB cable as a 5V power supply from my laptop.
If the two wires on the other side happen to touch each other, will it kill my USB port?
Just to be cautious.
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Live plant as a touch switch
I’m a Jack of all trades sort of guy but have basically zero electrical knowledge..
That being said.. I want to use a live.. real plant...to turn on and off a light. I tried a touch switch replacement ...
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Charging 18650 battery with built-in PCb
How would I charge an 18650 battery with a built-in protection circuit?
This is for an infrared camera. I normally could charging the device via micro usb but port broke.
4 wires are soldered to the ...
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When did DC-DC buck converter modules become so popular?
Is it just me or from maybe since 4 years ago every project online for hobbyist electronics is using switch-mode power circuits in them?
Looking back 15 years ago at projects from when I started doing ...
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Which IC component is this?
I seem to have burned out this chip on my Hobby King ESC (see picture). I am not able to read the component part number. The ESC is no longer available to buy. What is the part number (so that I may ...
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What's the difference between chip families
I've been trying to follow Ben Eater's 8 bit computer design (https://eater.net/8bit) and I've manged to build something that broadly works but it's not very reliable. Sometimes modules don't work, if ...
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Micro-USB B - female weird pinout
fixing up a kids toy today that used a USB Micro-B cable/port. The female port was smashed up.
I have started to remove the old female socket and noticed it did not use a standard pin out. Rather than ...
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Specifications of a motor which will light an led (momentarily) from hand-spinning?
EDIT: I feel I might have placed the emphasis wrongly in my original question so I'll try to revise it here.
In the video cited the demonstrator can be seen spinning a small "hobby" motor ...
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Why are the parts more expensive than a Pro Micro? [closed]
I have just started studying electronics and I am having a good time. In the past my experience would have been to use cheap boards, such as the Pro Micro.
What I find confusing is that parts, such as ...
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How does a layman interface with a system on a chip?
I'm looking to build an incredibly simple robot that I control via bluetooth. I've identified the CC2540 from TI which will theoretically allow me to do this. It sounds perfect, it's like 5 bucks. ...
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How to mount a PCB in a project box
Hi nearly finished my first electronics project and I need to think about how to mount it into a box.
I feel like I am missing something absolutely obvious with how to use PCB spacers.
Here is a ...
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Honeywell TH1100DH1004 - temperature signal
Is it possible to have this (non programmable ) thermostat communicate only a constant temperature reading regardless of what the sensor senses?
My understanding is that it communicates a value set ...
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4
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Safety: Can I harm myself using an AC, 9V 500mA power supply for experiments?
I'm about to embark on my first electronics project and would like to check off a safety question:
I want to build a bicycle hub dynamo -> USB charger based on these instructions.
It is basically a ...
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2
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Why is this circuit causing my breaker to trip?
I'm an electronics hobbyist and I decided to make my own electric heater/kiln thingy. It works fine for a couple of minutes, but then the breaker trips. This is my first project involving AC, so I'm a ...
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Adjustable Power Supply with LM317
I want to create an adjustable power supply for my electronics projects, and the cheapest/fastest option seems to be using an LM317.
However, I do not want to blow things up by doing something wrong (...
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What to look for when buying a reliable hobbyist soldering iron
I wanted to buy a soldering iron for some hobby tinkering, ordered one long ago from Wish! For a few quid, but as you must imagine it's awful. Doesn't heat uniformly, overheats and melts plastic. Tips ...
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Phone on a breadbord
My current electronics project is to build a very simple customizable "phone". It is my own idea, with as ultimate goal to learn about microcontrollers and basic electronics.
This is my set-up so far
...
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Hobby Project - Signal Frequency detector
Context: I have taken on a little side hobby project to learn by making a circuit which should be able to only go high when it sense an acoustic signal with a frequency around 40kHz. To do this I will ...
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Bandpass Filter: Single supply op amp design
I have taken on a hobby project and I am trying to make a circuit which would be able to identify an acoustic signal with a frequency of 40kHz.
Here is the circuit of a band pass filter for this:
...
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612
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Should I spread the pads out on the footprint of a THT LED?
I have a 4 pin RGB LED with a common anode. I'm trying to make my first PCB and I am creating the footprint for the LED now.
I don't have a datasheet for the LEDs unfortunately.
I have a ruler ...
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Do I need decoupling capacitors when I'm PWMing an LED?
I'm a hobbyist (well, less than a hobbyist really) trying to layout my first PCB design. I'm somewhat familiar with the concept of decoupling capacitors. I'm fading 3 LEDs in and out (really, it's ...
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using 7.62mm screw terminals on prototype board
What have people done to be able to use 7.62mm screw terminals on prototype boards? I am trying to prototype something use screw terminals that have 7.62mm posts, but the prototype boards do not have ...
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Simple, low precision, milliohmmeter
Would like to have a simple milliohmeter for car wiring checking. Precision is not important, it's not about 3 vs 4 mΩ, it's about 3 vs 30 vs 300 mΩ.
Simple idea is a 1A floating current source (2 ...
